Do they get paid?

[Kenshin]

Hi,
I don't know a lot about Star Trek and was wondering how much, let's take TnT for example, money do they get for doing their jobs? I mean they get a monthly salary or something like that don't they?
I think I once read somewhere that in the Star Trek 'verse money doesn't exist anymore, but they have to get paid with something else like Credits (?) or whatever.
Maybe someone knows more about that.

Greetings Kenshin

[Rigil Kent]

Kirk & Scotty make reference to spending money on shore leave, so money clearly does exist up to that point. It's not until the communists take over in TNG that they give us the spiel about evolving "past money".

I think there was also a cutscene in Two Days, Two Nights that someone referenced where Archer was arranging for payment to the Risa authorities for the shore leave.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

I think there was also a cutscene in Two Days, Two Nights that someone referenced where Archer was arranging for payment to the Risa authorities for the shore leave.

Yes, that's right.

And I think there has been a couple of off-hand remarks about "earning one's living" on ENT too.

[dark_rain]

They must get something. No-one in their right mind would do a job that dangerous without getting some pay! I wouldn't do it, even if I loved that sort of work, without getting good pay. Though, having just typed that, I wonder what they'd pay T'Pol with, as vulcan doesn't really have money. Does it?

[Rigil Kent]

Says who? I'm not aware of anything indicating Vulcans don't use money. For that matter, I find it kind of silly to even think that anyone doesn't use money...

[dark_rain]

Says who? I'm not aware of anything indicating Vulcans don't use money. For that matter, I find it kind of silly to even think that anyone doesn't use money...

I was under the impression that they shared family resources so that they could live together without the need to buy things from others. So no need for money.

Just my 0.02p (about 0.045$)

[blacknblue]

There has to be some kind of medium of exhange. Money is nothing more than a formalized system of IOUs that governments use to keep track of who owes how much to whomever. There has to be some standardized method of establishing relative value of goods and services. Otherwise you have chaos.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

Says who? I'm not aware of anything indicating Vulcans don't use money. For that matter, I find it kind of silly to even think that anyone doesn't use money...

I was under the impression that they shared family resources so that they could live together without the need to buy things from others. So no need for money.

Just my 0.02p (about 0.045$)

Well, it's not strictly canon, but I recall reading in Diane Duane's Spock's World that there are stores and market places on Vulcan, which would strongly indicate that they use some kind of currency.

[CX]

The "no money" thing was GR's idea of making humans seem more "enlightened" in the 24th Century. This was effectively undone by the intdroduction of the Ferengi and their "gold-pressed latinum". There were also several mentions of "credits" throughout TNG.

[dark_rain]

ok, fair enough... But, this leads me to the second question that popped into my head...

Is there an exchange rate or do both planets use the exact same curency?

[Elessar]

Which two planets?

They also make references to Starfleet officers and what they "make" in Deep Space 9, because of the frequency of Ferengi characters' influence.

Plus, I mean the whole idea that there's "no money" in the 24th century just makes no sense. How would civilian traders acquire their ships? Their economy is obviously not socialist, so there must be free market and currency.

I think the line from Picard in First Contact, which Lilly interprets as "You mean no money?" where he actually says "We seek to better ourselves and the rest of humanity..." is actually a blanket statement that just means they've risen above material greed (for the most part) not that they somehow have NO form of trade or currency at all.

That's called "one of those planets they visit that once had warp drive and technology 500 years ago but turned their backs on technology"

[blacknblue]

With replicators and access to an infinite energy supply, nobody would ever go hungry. Since they can make any amount of food, clothing, shelter, medicine, tools, toys, or whatever else they want I guess money would be used to buy luxuries and/or privileges.

[Rigil Kent]

I think the line from Picard in First Contact, which Lilly interprets as "You mean no money?" where he actually says "We seek to better ourselves and the rest of humanity..." is actually a blanket statement that just means they've risen above material greed (for the most part) not that they somehow have NO form of trade or currency at all.

But in that TNG episode where they thawed those 20th century people out, I seem to recall Picard specifically telling the Evil!Greedy!Capitalist that they had evolved beyond money or some such nonsense. Now granted, I personally don't like TNG so I could be misremembering this but I seem to remember that...

[Elessar]

I think the line from Picard in First Contact, which Lilly interprets as "You mean no money?" where he actually says "We seek to better ourselves and the rest of humanity..." is actually a blanket statement that just means they've risen above material greed (for the most part) not that they somehow have NO form of trade or currency at all.

But in that TNG episode where they thawed those 20th century people out, I seem to recall Picard specifically telling the Evil!Greedy!Capitalist that they had evolved beyond money or some such nonsense. Now granted, I personally don't like TNG so I could be misremembering this but I seem to remember that...

No, I think you're right, I remember the specific episode... But I as more amused by the VC trooper and what was it... Amelia Earheart? Wait... that was "The 37's" on voyager... my bad... I mix up completely horrible episodes all the time

No actually I liked the 37's with guilty pleasure... it was just funny. Like Threshold.

I just don't think it makes any sense... there'd be no reason for anybody to do anything without currency... there'd be no possibility for mass production, manufacturing, etc. Even though they have the technological capability to turn energy into nearly anything (not QUITE anything, replicators are still very early technology) they still need engineers and scientists that come up with that kind of thing, and they need to be paid... because they have to get an education... and somebody has to get food and housing for the professors who teach them, and somebody has to print books on old fashioned paper for them to have learned with when they were younger... etc etc.

It's just a dumb idea. Yeah star trek can be a utopia, but you can't eliminate currency.

[chrisis1033]

There is a bit of an explantion in DS9. Realizing that the TNG comment put them in a kind of dumb place, the writers if DS9 made comments about the Federation not using a currency (Quarks makes fun of this all the time) However they do have a "Credit" at the Quarks bar and other private businesses, which is recorded by their thumb print. So they must have some sort of currency when interacting with a private business or a non Federation Group... such as the Ferengi.

Don't forget everyones favorite retirement plan... Gold Pressed Latium (sp). That is traded... bought and smuggled and used to pay for illegal weapons, cargo and all kinds of things...